Marketing Strategy for Harris Farm Supermarket

This article provides a comprehensive marketing strategy for Harris Farm Supermarket, including a situation analysis, competitor analysis, and SWOT analysis. It also analyzes the macro and micro environmental factors affecting the company. The article discusses the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats faced by the company and provides recommendations for improving its marketing strategy.

Running head: MARKETING STRATEGY
Marketing Strategy
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author note

1MARKETING STRATEGY
Table of Contents
Part 1................................................................................................................................................2
Situation Analysis............................................................................................................................2
Background of Harris Farm Supermarket....................................................................................2
Marketing Environment...............................................................................................................2
Macro Environmental Analysis...............................................................................................2
Micro Environmental Analysis................................................................................................4
Competitor Analysis........................................................................................................................5
SWOT Analysis...........................................................................................................................5
References........................................................................................................................................8

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Part 1
Situation Analysis
Background of Harris Farm Supermarket
Harris Farm Supermarket is one of the Australian grocery chains in which the company
has their business in more than 25 locations in New South Wales (Harris Farm Markets, 2018).
Furthermore, the respective supermarket specializes in selling vegetables, fruits along with
different other grocery items. The company was founded in the year 1971 and the founder of the
company was David Harris and the respective Harris Farm Supermarket is operating in more
than 25 locations. Lastly, the numbers of employees who are working in the Harris Farm
Supermarket are more than 2000 till the year 2015. However, the company is in their declining
stage as there are various other competitors in the market such as Woolworths, Target and Kmart
supermarkets.
Marketing Environment
Macro Environmental Analysis
In order to analyze the macro environment, the PESTEL analysis can be conducted in
order to understand the different factors which are affecting the firm in both negative and
positive manner.
Political factor is the first aspect in which this has been noticed that there are various
kinds of political norms in Australia which can affect the brand image of the firm if the same are
not being followed. The government regulations in Australia are against the duopolistic nature of

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the market and this will negatively affect the Harris Farm Supermarket (Weinstein and Pohlman
2015).
Economic factor is the second aspect in which the Harris Farm Supermarket needs to
analyze the different spending patterns of the customers in Australia. This has been noticed that
the company cannot exist as there are different other competitors in the market which can affect
the overall brand image of the company and the prices are high at Harris Farm Supermarket and
this can create huge impact on the sales of the company.
Social factor is the third aspect in which the company tries to pride themselves in
fostering a positive and proper relationship culture and the company tries to hand the community
by supplying a percentage back to the different customers in the economy. However, the other
competitors such as Woolworths and Coles are successful in this social aspect as they tried to
join hands with various communities in serving the economy.
Technological factor is the other aspect which is required to be taken into consideration
by Harris Farm Supermarket as this has been seen that the company lacks in the self check out
service and they are in the declining stage as they are not being able to cope up with the various
kinds of self service and check out system for the customers and they are successful in
performing such activities as well (Foxall 2014).
Legal factor is the other aspect wherein this has been noticed that the organization may
suffer from different safety related concerns. The company Harris Farm Supermarket needs to
keep in mind and abide by the various laws such as related to environment and legal rules and
regulations as well (Malhotra and Peterson 2014).

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Environmental factor is the other aspect in which the company is not being able to offer
fresh and organic kind of products and environment to their customers. However, on the other
hand, this has been noticed that the Woolworths try to maintain fresh and healthy environment
for their customers and this helped them in becoming the largest supermarkets in Australia as
well (Bresler and Lubbe 2014).
Micro Environmental Analysis
With the help of Porter’s Five Forces Analysis, the different threats and the other
bargaining power of the rivalries can be analyzed in an efficient manner.
Threat of the new entrants is moderate for Harris Farm Supermarket; however this can
be a major challenge for the company as there are various kinds of brands in which this can
lower the productivity and sales of the company in a negative manner. On the other hand, there
are established players in the market as well which is inclusive of Woolworths and Target
supermarket which can be a huge threat for Harris Farm Supermarket (Malhotra and Peterson
2014).
Bargaining power of the buyers is low in the market in which Harris Farm Supermarket
is operating their business. However, on the other hand this can be seen that different consumers
can have several choices such as online e-retailers which can be a threat for Harris Farm
Supermarket. On the other hand, this has been analyzed that brand image of Harris Farm
Supermarket is not so strong in present scenario and this is affecting the brand image negatively
(Olson et al. 2018).
Bargaining power of suppliers is low as the size of Harris Farm Supermarket is small
and this will have huge impact on profitability of the firm as well. The chances of forward

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integration are low in Harris Farm Supermarket and the demand of the suppliers is different in
nature as well (Marshall 2014).
Threat of substitutes is huge in the Australian market in which this has been seen and
analyzed that Woolworths, Kmart and target supermarket are the major and largest competitors
in the market. These competitors are offering the customers with various technological advanced
services which are impacting the reputation of the firm in a negative manner (Goworek,
McGoldrick and McGoldrick 2015).
Level of competitive rivalry is high in the market for Harris Farm Supermarket as there
are huge players in the market and this can pose a huge competitive threat. The main competitors
of Harris Farm Supermarket are Woolworths and Target and this threat is becoming huge in
nature as well (Miquel-Romero, Caplliure-Giner and Adame-Sánchez 2014).
Competitor Analysis
There are major competitors of Harris Farm Supermarket which is inclusive of
Woolworths, Target and the Kmart Supermarket which are the largest supermarkets in Australian
market. Woolworths can be a major threat for Harris Farm Supermarket as the company has
introduced different kinds of technologically advanced equipment and this has helped
Woolworths in succeeding. This can be a threat for Harris Farm as the company is in the
declining stage and this can be dangerous for the growth of the firm as well.
SWOT Analysis
With the help of SWOT analysis, this can be analyzed that there are various strengths,
weaknesses, opportunities and threats which are being faced by Harris Farm Supermarket in the
market. The SWOT analysis of Harris Farm Supermarket is as follows:

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Strengths
 The company has tried to differentiate
their products through merchandise
and the products are stylish and
affordable in nature as well
 Loyalty program is the other
strength in which this has helped
Harris Farm Supermarket in
providing the different target
customers with various discounts
and offers and this helps the
company in gaining competitive
advantage in the market as well
Weaknesses
 The breach of the data is affecting the
base of the customers is the weakness
of Harris Farm Supermarket in which
this was seen that in December 2013,
there was lack of breach of data and
this affected the reputation of the firm
as well
 There is huge dependence on the
different suppliers from foreign
countries and this affected the overall
growth of the firm in an ineffective
manner as well
Opportunities
 The company can expand their
presence in various other countries
such as United States of America
and this can affect the overall
profitability of the firm in an
efficient manner (Shaw 2016)
 The strong presence can help the
Harris Farm Supermarket in
improving their image in the whole
Threats
 The labor cost is rising at a huge speed
and this is affecting the overall brand
image of the firm (Philip Keller Kotler
2017). Furthermore, this can be
identified that Harris Farm
Supermarket is not being able to make
profits in the country and this is
ineffective in nature

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market along with gaining huge
competitive advantage in
comparison to the other competitors
in the market as well
 The threat from e-commerce to brick
and mortar outlets is the constant kind
of threat as this will decrease the
overall profitability of the firm in a
negative manner as well.

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References
Bresler, M. and Lubbe, I., 2014. Marketing management.
Foxall, G., 2014. Strategic Marketing Management (RLE Marketing). Routledge.
Goworek, H., McGoldrick, P.J. and McGoldrick, P.J., 2015. Retail marketing management:
Principles and practice. Harlow, UK: Pearson.
Harris Farm Markets. 2018. Buy Groceries Online | Harris Farm Markets. [online] Available at:
https://www.harrisfarm.com.au/ [Accessed 6 Sep. 2018].
Malhotra, N.K. and Peterson, M., 2014. Basic marketing research. Pearson.
Marshall, G., 2014. Marketing management. McGraw-Hill Higher Education.
Miquel-Romero, M.J., Caplliure-Giner, E.M. and Adame-Sánchez, C., 2014. Relationship
marketing management: Its importance in private label extension. Journal of Business
Research, 67(5), pp.667-672.
Olson, E.M., Slater, S.F., Hult, G.T.M. and Olson, K.M., 2018. The application of human
resource management policies within the marketing organization: The impact on business and
marketing strategy implementation. Industrial Marketing Management, 69, pp.62-73.
Philip.; Keller Kotler (Kevin Lane.; Ang, Swee-Hoon.; Tan, Chin-Tiong.; Leong, Siew Meng),
2017. Marketing management. Pearson.
Shaw, S., 2016. Airline marketing and management. Routledge.

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Weinstein, A. and Pohlman, R.A., 2015. Customer value: a new paradigm for marketing
management. In Proceedings of the 1997 Academy of Marketing Science (AMS) Annual
Conference (pp. 132-133). Springer, Cham.